


Love or Hate

by RhyTobi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Bad Severus Snape, Good Severus Snape, James Potter Bashing, James Potter Being an Asshole, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Rants, Sirius Black Bashing, Snape's Worst Memory, Werewolf Remus Lupin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:40:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28869438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhyTobi/pseuds/RhyTobi
Summary: Rants and reasonings for loving and hating characters.You can request certain characters from anything and if I have seen or read it I will do one for them if you want.At the moment I only have ones for Harry Potter that will be posted.Any questions? Please comment.
Kudos: 3





	Love or Hate

Severus Snape. He gets a split reaction in the fandom. While some hate him, others love him. For some reason this causes a lot of divide in the fandom and a lot of arguments between the two sides. The main reason I have seen for the hate side of the fandom, is that the only reason he is the way he is, is because Lily rejected him. Which, while that probably was the reason for some of what he has done, to say that is the only reasoning is trying to wipe away a lot of what he went through as a child.

Let us start off with his childhood. Severus Snape grew up in the poorer part of a muggle town in the 1960s. It is safe to assume that since Petunia made harsh comments on his wardrobe and family, and the fact Lily is his first friend that many others probably bullied him as well. We also know that Snape’s parents; Eileen Prince(Pure-Blood) and Tobias Snape(Muggle), were distance and that Tobias Snape “didn’t like anything, much” , this could easily be further thought that he was not just neglected but abused by his father. We do not have enough information to know for sure.

So fast forwarding a little bit, we have Snape starting at Hogwarts. As we all know Severus sat with Lily Evans on the train to Hogwarts, where he also ended up meeting Sirius Black and James Potter. This is where the disdain between Severus and the, soon to be, Marauders started. It is easy to find out the reasoning for their very first dispute. That is right, Hogwarts Houses. James and Sirius fully believed that Slytherin house was full of evil, anyone sorted there must be evil.

This hostile first encounter led to the entire hate/hate relationship between Severus Snape and the Marauders, which when Severus was sorted into Slytherin and the others to Gryffindor didn’t exactly help this disdain be let go. So, pretty much, everything that happened after probably could’ve been avoided if house discrimination didn’t happen.

House discrimination was very well known though, and many followed along. Slytherin house was outcasted by the other houses which made it hard to have friends outside of Slytherin house. Then with Slytherin house being the home to many pureblood-supremacists those were the only people the Severus could easily have conversations with. Being outcasted by three-fourths of the school and only being talked to by Slytherins who most have the same opinion about magic, it is not hard to believe that Severus found comfort in the Dark Arts.

Now learning the Dark Arts is not inherently bad, learning about something doesn’t make you a bad person as long as you don’t use it for bad reasons. As we know Severus liked to create new spells, one of which being Sectumsempra (the cutting curse). In “Snape’s Worst Memory” it is safe to assume the spell he used on James to cause a cut on his cheek was this spell. Protecting himself with magic was not a bad idea as that is the only way most students at Hogwarts knows how to defend themselves, but to use a curse that only you know the healing spell to is quite unethical. He could’ve used many others that could’ve done way more help than that of Sectumsempra did.

Before we get to far into “Snape’s Worst Memory”, we need to start sooner than that.

From what we know about Remus and Severus’ relationship as teachers it is easy to find out how their relationship was as students. Severus is known to have said many remarks against Remus due to his sickly nature, even before he found out about the reason behind it. Severus had it out for all the Marauders, Remus being one of the weaker links in that group it is not surprising he went after him before the rest.

His many remarks against Remus and his obvious obsession in finding out his secret in later years is what leads to what we know as “The Prank”. The Prank happened early on in their fifth year somewhere between the beginning and half-way threw it. Sirius had become tired of Severus’ constant suspicion of Remus, he let his temper towards Severus get the better of him and tip him off on how to get through the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack on the other side. Now before Severus could get through it, James had been notified of Sirius’ actions and went to save Severus from being bitten or worse, death.

James had made a good decision to stop him, as not only could that have been a bad fate for Severus, but also for Remus. As Remus has always feared biting or killing someone in his werewolf form. To top off this horrific experience that Severus had to go through, Sirius was never given punishment for telling Severus about Remus (that we know of at least). Severus instead was forced to make an unbreakable vow to not let Remus’ secret slip to the rest of Hogwarts. Making it clear to Severus that no matter what the Marauders did, their actions would not have consequences.

After this you would think the Marauders would have backed off, but that is not what happened. Later that year right after their DADA OWL exams we get Severus’ worst memory. During a break period between exams, Severus is seen reviewing for his OWLs in the same vicinity as the Marauders. As he begins to pack his things James and Sirius spots him and yells out to him. Severus expecting to be attack tried to get his wand out but was to slow as James used Expelliarmus throwing his wand out of his hand to behind him.

As Severus tries to get his wand, made impossible a second later when James uses Impedimenta (which we learn binds its victims). They approach him with their wands pointed, as he is unable to do anything to protect himself. While hurling insults they use another spell on him that causes him to choak on soap bubbles (Scourgify). At this point Lily Evans steps in to try and stop them asking what he ever done to him. In which James replies, “Well, it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…” pretty much saying that no matter if Severus had done something to them or not he would still be the target for their bullying.

James tries to use this to get Lily to date him. Saying he will leave Severus alone if Lily agrees to go on a date with him, which she obviously doesn’t take him up on saying she would rather date the giant squid. During this altercation with Lily they miss Severus breaking free of the spell placed on him and him grabbing his wand, Sirius notices just as he sends a spell towards James that cuts the side of his face. James was quick to react and used a spell that swung Severus into the air upside down, and in front of entire group of students showed his undergarments.

When prompted to let him down by Lily he fell to ground in a heap and before he could try anything Sirius used Locomotor Mortis to cause Severus to fall once again rigid as a board. Lily continues to try to help him, but is only met with Severus calling her a “Mudblood”. Which is the last straw in their friendship, she sends an insult his way and then runs off. James continues to go on and threatens to take off Severus’ pants.

After all this Severus is now friendless and even more hated by the rest of the school. Then he joins the Death Eaters. Of course after losing his best friend and more than half the school believing he was evil, working for the one person who thinks he was better than what everyone else thought should’ve been thought of. He quickly climbs the ranks and becomes one of Voldemort most trusted. Severus stood by him and when he overheard a prophecy of who could defeat the Dark Lord he quickly reported not thinking anything of it. 

The knowledge of Voldemort going to kill Lily makes him realize the mistake in that action. He immediately goes to Albus Dumbledore in hopes of saving Lily. Dumbledore in which speaks how vial it was to think that the Dark Lord killing James and Harry as long as she was safe was okay. Severus rewords his plea, reluctantly, to saving all of them. Dumbledore heads his warning though and hides the Potters away and has Severus turn spy.

Years later; the war is over, Lily is dead, all that remains is her son. That son is in his potions class and treats him horribly all because he looked like his father. The first thing he says makes it seem like he believes that Harry was raised being pampered and spoiled, which since he knows how Lily’s sister, Petunia, is towards anything magic makes it seem like he doesn’t know that Harry has been living with Petunia and her family.

Severus knowing about how he was raised or not, doesn’t change how he ends up treating Harry threw out the entire series. His treatment towards Neville and Hermione, as well as most of Gryffindor, was unwarranted as he was a teacher and should not acted the ways he did towards the children in his charge. As a teacher he continued to grade their works to how he would grade anyone, but outside of papers, he could be seen breaking down Neville’s composure which could be one of the reasons he did badly in potions.

The way Severus treated his students as well as Remus when he came to teach DADA in Harry’s third year was not okay no matter how you look at it. Severus speaking out about Remus’ lycanthropy at the end of the year was also out of his hatred for the man, but when you think about it none of the hate that came from “The Prank” should have been pointed at Remus as he was already in the Shack when Sirius told Severus about it. Meaning he either thought it was also Remus fault for him finding out or he told everyone based only off his hate for not stepping in when James and Sirius bullied him.

In the end Severus protects Draco from having to kill Dumbledore, under Dumbledore’s and Narcissa’s orders. He sends his Patronus to find Harry and show him to the sword of Gryffindor that would be used to destroy the other horcruxes. As well as, while he dies, shows Harry his memories that will end up helping in the defeat of Voldemort and win the war.

Severus Snape is many things. You have every right to continue to hate him or continue to love him. To try and say that he has no reason for the way he is (a good reason or not is up for debate) is completely uncalled for. Also to try and say he wasn’t a horrible person because of all these things he went threw would be like saying emotional abuse towards children is okay. You can love a character while hating things about them, just like you can hate a character but understand the reasons they did what they did.

Is Snape good or bad will never have a clear cut answer. You have to know all the facts of the person to give a definite answer, which as the book is not about him and from Harry’s point of view we only know so much about him. Everyone has their own opinions and they have every right to those opinions. We need to stop fighting over it and just let everyone feel the way they want about Severus Snape.

**Author's Note:**

> If anything is left out about a character for a reason for or against them please let me know and I will respond to it.  
> Have a nice day.


End file.
